Sports

Napanee kicker stranded

Napanee District Secondary School student Alex Cowle is caught in football limbo.

The kicker is one of 38 University of Waterloo recruits scrambling to figure out personal options after the school suspended the Warriors football program for the 2010 season in the wake of a steroid scandal.

Cowle acknowledged his world came "crashing down" on Friday when a player-imposed 1 p.m. deadline for Waterloo to reverse its decision came and went without anything changing.

Drug tests revealed infractions for nine players, leading to Waterloo vice-president, academics and provost Feridun Hamdullahpur's decision to suspend the program for 2010 on Monday.

"Because of what's happened at Waterloo, I have to figure out what I can do. That's what I'm stuck with right now."

When Bruce Cowle, Alex's father and a Napanee lawyer, learned of the decision while watching the news, he made a call to recruiting co-ordinator Carl Zender, who resigned to help the players' protest, to see if he could offer any assistance.

Zender and Bruce decided that Alex could lend his voice to the protest. The youngster spoke at a press conference held by the players on Thursday that served as a last-ditch effort to try to salvage the season.

His teachers at NDSS, after learning of Alex's desire to go to Waterloo for the press conference, agreed to postpone his physics exam for one day.

"My dream is to go to university and play football," said Cowle, who will graduate with marks in the mid-80s. "I just want that chance to play football at the next level."

While Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced this week that any Waterloo student can transfer to another program if accepted, incoming students like Cowle face a difficult challenge -- trying to catch on with another team without any university experience.

Cowle said he sent an e-mail to a coach at an Ontario university on Friday afternoon to see if there could be a match. He declined to reveal the name of the university.

Previously, Cowle applied to Bishop's, Queen's, McMaster, Western and Waterloo.

But the deadline for incoming students to change universities in Ontario is May 28.

Cowle, who wants to study kinesiology, picked Waterloo after the coaches told him he'd have every chance to play in his freshman season.

"At Waterloo, they said he'd be playing unless somebody else came out of the woodwork," Bruce Cowle said. "They said if he came to Waterloo, they'd stop looking for (other kickers)."

Alex Cowle said he might explore the possibility of playing football at a university in Eastern Canada after a fellow Waterloo recruit told him those schools have later deadlines than their Ontario counterparts.

Another option is sticking at Waterloo, which still plans to operate a football program in 2010, albeit one that will not play any official games. The family already has submitted a residence deposit for the coming school year, though tuition is not due until later this summer.

At least Alex Cowle still has a place to play football the rest of the summer. A member of the Limestone Grenadiers, Cowle will travel to Cumberland on Saturday for an Ontario Varsity Football League game against the Cumberland Panthers.

Meanwhile, Ontario University Athletics, now a nine-team league for 2010, is expected to reveal a revamped schedule on Monday.

OUA executive director Ward Dilse, in an e-mail to the Whig- Standard, said the six-team playoff format will remain the same.

In all likelihood, that means the season will start earlier than the scheduled start of Labour Day as each team needs to have a bye week.

The defending Vanier Cup champion Queen's Golden Gaels were slated to start the 2010 season in Waterloo against the Warriors on Labour Day (Sept. 6).

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Graduated Queen's quarterback Danny Brannagan has been named the Burlington male athlete of the year for 2009.

Now with the Toronto Argonauts, Brannagan led the Gaels to their first Vanier Cup since 1992 last year.